Which is part of the reason Bishop Connolly should not stay down in the dumps too long after its state semifinal basketball loss to St. Clement last Monday at the TD Garden in Boston.

Of course, Bishop Connolly wanted to defeat St. Clement of Medford. That would have left the Cougars one win shy of successfully defending the state crown they won in 2013 – on the Garden’s parquet floor.

But what was truly the biggest deal about last Monday’s game? Was it being a state semifinal? Or was it playing at the Garden? I vote for B.

Again, it’s all about the stage.

By winning at the Garden, St. Clement (whose likeable coach Leo Boucher is old friends with former Somerset high hoop standout Steve Attar), St. Clement advanced to the Friday’s state championship game at ... Holy Cross in Worcester.

No disrespect (a disclaimer which rarely works) to Holy Cross and its nice basketball facility, but there’s something just not right about going from the Garden to Holy Cross. A bit of a venue letdown, don’t you think? If Connolly’s season had to end, at least it ended at the Garden, and playing there is as good as it gets.

In case I didn’t mention, it’s all about the stage.

----- Last Saturday’s Division 3 South boys’ basketball final between Westport and Cardinal Spellman at UMass Boston might be best remembered for a most conspicuous incident which occurred before the teams even tipped off.

Just after public address announcer Joe Rocha had started to introduce the Spellman starters, South tourney director Karen McDonald completed a quick march to the scorer’s table, grabbed the microphone, and spoke directly to some of the younger Westport fans in the bleachers directly behind the Wildcat bench. These fans had, when the Spellman intro started, turned their backs to the court, one of those orchestrated moves (like holding up newspapers) fans do.

McDonald obviously saw it as a violation of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association’s fan sportsmanship policy, one that is read over the PA before games. In what seemed like an order in the guise of a request, McDonald asked the fans to turn back around.

She was so upset by the Westport fans that en route from her seat in the bleachers at the rear of the gym to the scorer’s table, she was oblivious to a most friendly hello from yours truly. Jay Pacheco, athletics director at Westport, said McDonald also gave him an earful, though he said he doesn’t think she at the time knew he was A.D.

Page 2 of 2 - Having had his PA momentum stopped cold by McDonald, Rocha regrouped nicely when his microphone was returned (in one piece).

McDonald, via text on Wednesday, said she did not reprimand anyone. “Student fans were asked to face forward,” she said.

Many say this is an example of MIAA officials’ extreme interpretation of bad sportsmanship serving to siphon some of the healthy fun out of the atmosphere surrounding high school games, especially big games.

I was told that during the introduction of the Westport players (Westport was introduced first), Spellman’s very lively and organized student fans had performed their own shun-the-foe act, slumping over in their seats and pretending to be asleep – in some cases with their eyes open, which is how my mom used to sleep until everyone was home at night. To those who might complain about McDonald failing to address the Spellman fans, consider this. Spellman fans were at the other end of the sideline bleachers, near the front of the gym. I was along a similar line of site as McDonald and missed it, too.

----- Maybe it’s a positive my daughter, 13, had a good time at her first hockey game. Maybe.

She went to the Providence Bruins vs. Adirondack game last Sunday at the Dunkin Donuts Center, mostly to be part of her young cousin's birthday celebration. My guess was she expected to spend most of the game talking to her young female cousins and playing with her iPhone.

But lo and behold, what happened? She enjoyed the game, one part in particular. During the game, we at home got a text from Kathryn, saying she was having fun and “just saw a great fight.”